A dream come true for Immaculate

Published 11:45 pm, Monday, August 31, 2009

That was a newspaper headline that appeared in the middle of Immaculate High's run to the Division II girls lacrosse state championship this past spring.

It was also how several of the Mustangs said they felt in a season in which they captured an improbable title as an 11th seed.

Immaculate's run from a 1-15 team in 2006 to state champions just three years later was the obvious highlight of the 2009 girls lacrosse season. It was also clearly a special time for Immaculate coach Janet Fable, Connecticut's Division II Coach of the Year.

"It's definitely been a journey," said Fable, who's seen the program grow from a club team in 2003. "Since our first game six years ago to see the team the way they behaved this year was just phenomenal.

"I just kept telling them as the years went by to keep closing the gap, keep closing the gap,' and it'll all come together and this year they really closed the gap. To think that we won the state championship. It just really pulled all of them together. It was great."

The Mustangs, who had only won one state tournament game prior to this year, knocked off the top three seeds in the D-II tourney. Immaculate plowed past No. 3 Haddam-Killingworth, No. 2 Old Lyme and No. 1 St. Bernard in the championship game to clinch the title.

Only two weeks earlier, Immaculate fell by a 20-11 score to Brookfield in a South-West Conference tournament semifinal.

The Bobcats would eventually fall to Newtown in the SWC title game. The SWC crown was the fifth straight for the Nighthawks and the fourth straight time Newtown victimized Brookfield in the championship.

Newtown, which finished the year with an 18-3 record, made it to the state D-I quarterfinal round where it fell to Glastonbury. It was another outstanding season for the Nighthawks and one for the ages for Immaculate.